January 8 - Learning that a club can now assess a player 30 dollars for his uniform and 50 cents a day to defray the cost of meals while the team is on the road, third baseman Joe Battin balks at signing a contract with St. Louis for the coming season but eventually complies.

February 3 – Cherokee Fisher admits taking $100 to throw a game from the 1876 season. Fisher will only appear in 1 more game in his career (1878) after his admission.

April 12 – Jim Tyng, a catcher for Harvard, becomes the first backstop to wear a face mask during a game. Harvard team manager, Fred Thayer, will receive a patent for the mask in 1878.

May 2 – The Boston Red Caps, who will win the pennant with a 42–18 record in 1877, lose an exhibition game to the Allegheny club of the International League. Pud Galvin tosses a one-hit shutout and hits a home run to defeat the Red Caps 1–0.

May 3 – Five New England teams – the Fall River Cascades, Lowell Ladies' Men, Lynn Live Oaks, Manchester Reds and Providence Rhode Islands form the New England Association playing each other 10 games each for a 40-game schedule to decide the so-called "Championship of New England."

May 4 – Five New York State teams – the Auburn Auburnians, Binghamton Crickets, Buffalo Bisons, Rochester Flour Citys and Syracuse Stars form the New York State Association playing each other 10 games each for a 40-game schedule to decide the so-called "Championship of New York State."

May 5 – Baseball's first "minor league" of sorts is formed as the National League recruits 12 teams to play in the "League Alliance." The LA Eastern Division enlists the: Brooklyn Chelseas, Philadelphia Athletics and Syracuse Stars while the LA Western Division enlists the: Chicago Fairbanks, Indianapolis Hoosiers, Janesville Mutuals, Memphis Reds, Milwaukee Cream Citys, Minneapolis Browns, St. Paul Red Caps and Winona Clippers.

May 10 – The Lowell Ladies' Men, members of the New England Association, affiliate themselves with the National League by joining the NL's "farm system", i.e. the League Alliance East Division. Lowell competes in both circuits and wins the pennant in each.

May 17 – The National League votes to change to a livelier ball to replace the one described as being "dead enough to bury" in a special league meeting.

June 5 – Star pitcher Albert Spalding makes his last career start on the mound.

July 3 – Cincinnati loses to the Louisville Grays in their first game since re-organization. The Reds hope to avoid forfeiture of games played and expulsion by the National League by finishing out the season.

July 11 – Pete Hotaling, of the Syracuse Stars in the International League, wears a catcher's mask in his first game back after missing a month after being struck in the eye by a foul ball.

July 20 – Will White makes his major league debut. White is the first professional player to wear glasses. No other big-leaguer will wear glasses until Lee Meadows in 1915.

August 6 – As per National League rules, Cal McVey of the visiting Chicago White Stockings randomly draws the umpire from 3 slips of paper placed in a hat for their game against the first-place Louisville Grays. When McVey draws an umpire named Dan Devinney, he disgustedly grabs the hat and discovers that all 3 pieces of paper have the same name on them. The angered White Stockings proceed to pound the Grays 7–2.

August 12 – Johnny Quigley, a catcher for the Harlem Clippers, dies from injuries sustained in a collision with Dan Brouthers at home plate on July 7.

August 20 – Louisville Grays vice-president, Charles Chase, receives a telegram from an unknown source stating that something was going on with the Louisville players and that bettors were placing their money on Hartford in their game to be played that day. Hartford defeats Louisville 6–1.

August 25 – The Louisville Grays surrender a run in the 8th and 2 more in the 9th and lose to the second-place Boston Red Caps 3–2 in the opener of a crucial 3 game series. The loss drops the Grays into a first-place tie with the Red Caps.

September 25 – Jim Devlin and George Hall of the Louisville Grays are named by Louisville newspaper writer John Haldeman to have thrown an exhibition game played the previous day against Indianapolis. Both players will later admit this to club officials.

October 27 – The Louisville Grays formally drop Jim Devlin, George Hall, Al Nichols and Bill Craver for their involvement in the fixing of games. The players' remaining salaries are forfeited to the team. Devlin's testimony included statements that the Gray's had paid umpire Dan Devinney (see August 6) extra to call games in Louisville's favor in roughly 20 games during the season. The club denied the charge as a lie by Devlin, but the method for choosing umpires was changed by the National League before the 1878 season began.

November 6 – The Lowell Ladies' Men, pennant winners of the New England Association, defeat the NL champion Boston Beaneaters, 9–4, to win the 1877 Inter-League playoff between the champions of the 2 leagues, 3 games to 1. Newspapers around the country did not use the term "World Series" yet, instead referring to the series sometimes as the "United States' Series" or the "Inter-League Exhibitions."

November 20 – The New York Clipper sporting periodical published a list of the results of interleague competition between the teams of the National League and the teams of the New England Association. The NEA teams win the 48-game competition against the NL teams with 24 victories, 23 defeats and 1 tied contest. In 50 decisions played between the National League and New York State Association teams, the NL teams win 33 games while the NYSA teams win 17. In 50 decisions between NL teams and the teams of the International Association the NL teams prevail winning 30 contests while the IA teams win 20 games.

November 24 – The New York Mercury prints an amazingly accurate prediction about the future of baseball. "The baseball mania is getting so bad that every city will soon have a mammoth structure like the Roman Coliseum to play in. This will be illuminated by electric lights so that games can be played nights‚ thus overcoming a serious objection at present existing."

December 4 – At its winter meetings, the National League formally confirms the expulsion of the 4 Louisville players. They also vote to throw out all of Cincinnati's games because they failed to pay their $100 league fee.

December 6 – William Hulbert is re-elected as president of the National League and limits are placed upon the amount of non-league games that teams may play. The league also strips the Hartford Dark Blues of their membership due to continual financial problems.

December 7 – The Providence Rhode Islands jump leagues- going from the New England Association to the National League. The team, renamed the Grays, formally joins the NL on January 16, 1878.

December 12 – The Indianapolis Hoosiers and Milwaukee Cream Citys of the League Alliance announce their intention to join the National League for the 1878 season.

December 30 – The Lowell Spindle Citys (formerly Ladies' Men), Lynn Live Oaks and Manchester Reds leave the New England Association and join the International Association. The remaining NEA team, Fall River Cascades, disbands- effectively ending the NEA.

December 31 – The Auburn Auburnians, Binghamton Crickets, Rochester Flour Citys and Syracuse Stars leave the New York State Association and join the International Association – effectively ending the NYSA.

1.
Baseball
–
Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of nine players each, who take turns batting and fielding. A run is scored when a player advances around the bases, Players on the batting team take turns hitting against the pitcher of the fielding team, which tries to prevent runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the team who reaches a base safely can later attempt to advance to subsequent bases during teammates turns batting. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the team records three outs. One turn batting for both teams, beginning with the team, constitutes an inning. A game is composed of nine innings, and the team with the number of runs at the end of the game wins. Baseball has no clock, although almost all games end in the ninth inning. Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century and this game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognized as the sport of the United States. Baseball is now popular in North America and parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, in the United States and Canada, professional Major League Baseball teams are divided into the National League and American League, each with three divisions, East, West, and Central. The major league champion is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series, the top level of play is similarly split in Japan between the Central and Pacific Leagues and in Cuba between the West League and East League. The evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision, a French manuscript from 1344 contains an illustration of clerics playing a game, possibly la soule, with similarities to baseball. Other old French games such as thèque, la balle au bâton, consensus once held that todays baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, popular in Great Britain and Ireland. Baseball Before We Knew It, A Search for the Roots of the Game, by David Block, suggests that the game originated in England, recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of other. It has long believed that cricket also descended from such games. The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, David Block discovered that the first recorded game of Bass-Ball took place in 1749 in Surrey, and featured the Prince of Wales as a player. William Bray, an English lawyer, recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford and this early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants

2.
History of the Boston Braves
–
The Atlanta Braves, a current Major League Baseball franchise, originated in Boston, Massachusetts. This article details the history of the Boston Braves, from 1871 to 1952, the Boston Franchise played at South End Grounds from 1871 to 1914 and at Braves Field from 1915 to 1952. Braves Field is now Nickerson Field of Boston University, the franchise, from Boston to Milwaukee to Atlanta, is the oldest continuous professional baseball franchise. The Cincinnati Red Stockings, established in 1869 as the first openly all-professional baseball team, the original Boston Red Stockings team and its successors can lay claim to being the oldest continuously playing team in American professional sports. Two young players hired away from the Forest City club of Rockford, Illinois, turned out to be the biggest stars during the NAPBBP years, pitcher Al Spalding and second baseman Ross Barnes. Led by the Wright brothers, Barnes, and Spalding, the Red Stockings dominated the National Association, the team became one of the National Leagues charter franchises in 1876, sometimes called the Red Caps. Boston came to be called the Beaneaters by sportswriters in 1883, although somewhat stripped of talent in the National Leagues inaugural year, Boston bounced back to win the 1877 and 1878 pennants. The Red Caps/Beaneaters were one of the dominant teams during the 19th century. For most of time, their manager was Frank Selee. The 1898 team finished 102-47, a record for wins that would stand for almost a century. The team was decimated when the American Leagues new Boston entry set up shop in 1901, many of the Beaneaters stars jumped to the new team, which offered contracts that the Beaneaters owners didnt even bother to match. They only managed one winning season from 1900 to 1913, in 1907, the Beaneaters eliminated the last bit of red from their stockings because their manager thought the red dye could cause wounds to become infected. The American League clubs owner, Charles Taylor, wasted time in changing his teams name to the Red Sox in place of the generic Americans. The all-white outfits gave rise to the sobriquet Doves in 1907, however, clever monikers did nothing to change the National League clubs luck. The team adopted a name, the Braves, for the first time in 1912. Their owner, James Gaffney, was a member of New York Citys political machine, Tammany Hall, two years later, the Braves put together one of the most memorable seasons in baseball history. After a dismal 4-18 start, the Braves seemed to be on pace for a last place finish, on July 4,1914, the Braves lost both games of a doubleheader to the Brooklyn Dodgers. The consecutive losses put their record at 26-40 and the Braves were in last place,15 games behind the league-leading New York Giants, who had won the previous three league pennants

3.
Home run
–
In modern baseball, the feat is typically achieved by hitting the ball over the outfield fence between the foul poles without first touching the ground, resulting in an automatic home run. There is also the home run, increasingly rare in modern baseball. When a home run is scored, the batter is credited with a hit and a run scored. Likewise, the pitcher is recorded as having given up a hit, a batted ball is also a home run if it touches either foul pole or its attached screen before touching the ground, as the foul poles are by definition in fair territory. A batted ball that goes over the wall after touching the ground is not a home run. A fielder is allowed to reach over the wall to attempt to catch the ball as long as his feet are on or over the field during the attempt. If the fielder successfully catches the ball while it is in flight the batter is out, however, since the fielder is not part of the field, a ball that bounces off a fielder and over the wall without touching the ground is still a home run. A home run accomplished in any of the above manners is a home run. This stipulation is in Approved Ruling of Rule 7.10, an inside-the-park home run occurs when a batter hits the ball into play and is able to circle the bases before the fielders can put him out. Unlike with a home run, the batter-runner and all preceding runners are liable to be put out by the defensive team at any time while running the bases. This can only happen if the ball does not leave the ballfield, with outfields much less spacious and more uniformly designed than in the games early days, inside-the-park home runs are now a rarity. They are usually the result of a ball being hit by a very fast runner, either way, this sends the ball into open space in the outfield and thereby allows the batter-runner to circle the bases before the defensive team can put him out. The speed of the runner is crucial as even triples are relatively rare in most modern ballparks, all runs scored on such a play, however, still count. An example of an unexpected bounce occurred during the 2007 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at AT&T Park in San Francisco on July 10,2007, by the time the ball was relayed, Ichiro had already crossed the plate standing up. This was the first inside-the-park home run in All-Star Game history, Home runs are often characterized by the number of runners on base at the time. A home run hit with the bases empty is seldom called a one-run homer, with one runner on base, two runs are scored and thus the home run is often called a two-run homer or two-run shot. Similarly, a home runs with two runners on base is a three-run homer or three-run shot, the term four-run homer is seldom used, instead, it is nearly always called a grand slam. Hitting a grand slam is the best possible result for the turn at bat

4.
Batting average
–
Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batsmen in cricket and batters in baseball. The development of the statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. In cricket, a batting average is the total number of runs they have scored divided by the number of times they have been out. The number is also simple to interpret intuitively, if all the batsmans innings were completed, this is the average number of runs they score per innings. If they did not complete all their innings, this number is an estimate of the average number of runs they score per innings. Batting average has been used to gauge cricket players relative skills since the 18th century, most players have career batting averages in the range of 20 to 40. This is also the range for wicket-keepers, though some fall short. All-rounders who are more prominent bowlers than batsmen typically average something between 20 and 30,15 and under is typical for specialist bowlers. Under this qualification, the highest Test batting average belongs to Australias Sir Donald Bradman, given that a career batting average over 50 is exceptional, and that only four other players have averages over 60, this is an outstanding statistic. The fact that Bradmans average is so far above that of any other cricketer has led several statisticians to argue that, statistically at least, he was the greatest sportsman in any sport. As at 21 October 2016, Adam Voges of Australia has recorded an average of 72.75 from 27 innings played and it should also be remembered, especially in relation to the ODI histogram above, that there were no ODI competitions when Bradman played. If their scores have a geometric distribution then total number of runs scored divided by the number of times out is the maximum likelihood estimate of their true unknown average, Batting averages can be strongly affected by the number of not outs. A different, and more developed, statistic which is also used to gauge the effectiveness of batsmen is the strike rate. It measures a different concept however – how quickly the batsman scores – so it does not supplant the role of batting average and it is used particularly in limited overs matches, where the speed at which a batsman scores is more important than it is in first-class cricket. Table shows players with at least 20 innings completed, in baseball, the batting average is defined by the number of hits divided by at bats. It is usually reported to three places and read without the decimal, A player with a batting average of.300 is batting three-hundred. A point is understood, in only, to be.001. If necessary to break ties, batting averages could be taken beyond the.001 measurement, henry Chadwick, an English statistician raised on cricket, was an influential figure in the early history of baseball

5.
London Tecumsehs
–
Brown, Dr. J. Wilkinson and J. D. Dalton and 22 players who practiced twice a week on the military grounds. They were named for Shawnee chief Tecumseh, an article in The New York Times from 1875 reports that The Tecumseh Baseball Club, of London, Ontario, beat the Ætnas, of Detroit, the champions of Michigan, at London, Ontario, yesterday. This game in 1875 would have played at the above-mentioned old fair grounds in London. Then in 1877, the Tecumsehs moved to Tecumseh Park in the suburb of Petersville. Originally, the rules of the game were informal in nature, in 1868, the Tecumsehs lost to the Woodstock, Ontario Young Canadians 89-46 in a five-hour game. Woodstock later defeated Guelph Maple Leafs 36-29 to win the Canadian Silver Ball Championship, the Guelph Maple Leafs were the first Ontario team to hire professional ball players from the United States to strengthen their team. When Jacob L. S. later signing four Americans, first-baseman/manager George Juice Latham, pitcher Fred Goldsmith, catcher Phil Powers, the Tecumsehs joined the fledgling five-team Canadian Association of Base Ball in 1876. The Tecumsehs won the Canadian title in 1876, the Associations by-laws and constitution required member teams to pay $10 to join the league and fan admission was set at 25 cents. Visiting teams were guaranteed $75, plus half of the gate receipts when they exceeded that amount, pitcher Candy Cummings was the International Associations first president in 1877, while he was a player with the Lynn Live Oaks in Massachusetts. Both the London Tecumsehs and Tecumseh Park were named after the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh who fought alongside the British against the U. S. during the War of 1812, Chief Tecumseh died during the Battle of the Thames near Chatham, Ontario, in October 1813. While the Tecumsehs were charter members of the International Association, the continued to play many ball games against teams in other leagues. One of the first games played in the new stadium took place on Saturday, May 5,1877, against the Hartfords of Brooklyn, New York. The new field was lauded for its amenities, including a 600-seat grandstand, piped-in water for maintaining the grass and facilities for scorers. London won the International Association pennant in 1877 by defeating the Pittsburgh Allegheny 5-2, although the 1878 Tecumseh home opener attracted 4,000 fans, the crowds subsequently started to drop off and the team fell into debt. On August 22,1878, the club folded due to insufficient patronage, the two, four-inch by seven-inch guides are considered to be the first significant publications on Canadian baseball. On September 15,1920, with Ty Cobb in the lineup, the 1920 the Tecumsehs clinched the first-place pennant with 15 games to play and London led the Michigan-Ontario league in attendance, with an astonishing 100,686 people watching them play. On May 9,1921, under manager George Gibson, the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the London Tecumsehs 8-7 at Tecumseh Park before 3,500 people in a baseball game. Before the game, Gibson and his team is presented with a loving cup by the London Kiwanis Club

6.
Road (sports)
–
A road game or away game is a sports game where the specified team is not the host and must travel to another venue. Most professional teams represent cities or towns and amateur sports teams often represent academic institutions, each team has a location where it practices during the season and where it hosts games. When a team is not the host, it must travel to games. Thus, when a team is not hosting a game, the team is described as the team, the visiting team, or the away team. The venue in which the game is played is described as the stadium or the road. The host team is said to be the home team, major sporting events, if not held at a neutral venue, are often over several legs at each teams home ground, so that neither team has an advantage over the other. Occasionally, the team may not have to travel very far at all to a road game. These matches often become local derbies, a few times a year, a road team may even be lucky enough to have the road game played at their own home stadium or arena. This is prevalent in college athletics where many schools will play in regional leagues or groundshare. The related term true road game has seen increasing use in U. S. college sports in the 21st century, while regular-season tournaments and other special events have been part of college sports from their creation, the 21st century has seen a proliferation of such events. These are typically held at sites, with some of them taking place outside the contiguous U. S. or even outside the country entirely. In turn, this has led to the use of true road game to refer to contests played at one home venue. In some association football leagues, particularly in Europe, the teams fans sit in their own section. Depending on the stadium, they will either sit in a designated section or be separated from the home fans by a cordon of police officers. However, in the leagues in England, supporters may be free to mix. When games are played at a site, for instance the FA Cup final in England which is always played at Wembley Stadium. This results in each team occupying one half of the stadium and this is different from other sports, particularly in North America, where very few fans travel to games played away from their home stadium. Home and away fans are not separated at these games

7.
Deacon White
–
James Laurie Deacon White was an American baseball player who was one of the principal stars during the first two decades of the sports professional era. Although he was already 28 when the NL was established, White played 15 seasons in the major leagues, in 1871, White was the first batter to come to the plate in the National Association, the first professional baseball league. For three years afterward, he joined his younger brother Will, a pitcher, with the Cincinnati Reds. In his mid-30s he became a third baseman when the toil of catching had become too great. Over the 20-year period of his career, White batted.312 and had more RBI than any player except Cap Anson, upon his retirement, he was among baseballs all-time leaders in career games, at bats, hits and total bases. He ranked fourth in total chances at third base, fifth in assists. White was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in July 2013, White was born in Caton, New York, the son of farmer Lester S. White and his wife Adeline. Whites ancestors likely immigrated to America during the Colonial period and his cousin Elmer White also played baseball professionally as James teammate in 1871, in March 1872, Elmer was the first recorded professional baseball player to die. White learned baseball from a Union soldier who returned to his hometown after the Civil War in 1865 and his pro career began in 1868 with the Cleveland Forest Citys club, at a time when no team was entirely composed of professional players. White led his league in batting twice, and in RBI three times, not until 1953, when Roy Campanella topped the NL, would another catcher lead his league in RBI. White started out early enough to have played against the undefeated Cincinnati Red Stockings of 1869, on May 16,1884 White recorded 11 assists at third base, which remains the major league record for a nine-inning game although eight other players have since tied the mark. In the rough-and-tumble 19th-century baseball era, White was a nonsmoking, Bible-toting, church-going deacon. In 1889, the contracts of White and teammate Jack Rowe were sold to the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, eventually the two men were paid, with White telling a reporter, We appreciate the money, but we aint worth it. Im over 40 and my fielding aint so good, though I can still hit some, no man is going to sell my carcass unless I get half. Complaints like this were part of the reason that the Players League was formed in 1890, according to historian Lee Allen in The National League Story, White believed that the earth is flat. He tried and failed to convince his teammates that they were living on a plane and not a globe. Then one asked to be convinced, and the Deacon gave him an argument suited to the hypothesis that the earth is not really turning and he convinced the teammate but the argument would not prove that the earth is not a sphere. Whites playing career ended after the 1890 season, over the 20-year period from 1871 to 1890, White batted.312 and had more RBI than any player except Cap Anson, and also ranked fourth in career games, at bats, hits and total bases

8.
Run batted in
–
A run batted in, plural runs batted in, is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored. For example, if the batter bats a base hit, then another player on a base can go home. Prior to the 1920 Major League Baseball season, runs batted in were not a baseball statistic. Nevertheless, the RBI statistic was tabulated—unofficially—from 1907 through 1919 by baseball writer Ernie Lanigan, common nicknames for an RBI include ribby, rib, and ribeye. The plural of RBI is generally RBIs, although some commentators use RBI as both singular and plural, as it can stand for runs batted in. The official scorers judgment must determine whether a run batted in shall be credited for a run that scores when a fielder holds the ball or throws to a wrong base. The perceived significance of the RBI is displayed by the fact that it is one of the three categories that comprise the triple crown, in addition, career RBIs are often cited in debates over who should be elected to the Hall of Fame. This implies that better offensive teams—and therefore, the teams in which the most players get on base—tend to produce hitters with higher RBI totals than equivalent hitters on lesser-hitting teams, totals are current through October 8,2015

9.
National League
–
Both leagues currently have 15 teams. The two league champions of 1903 arranged to compete against each other in the inaugural World Series, after the 1904 champions failed to reach a similar agreement, the two leagues formalized the World Series as an arrangement between the leagues. National League teams have won 48 of the 112 World Series contested from 1903 to 2016, the 2016 National League champions are the Chicago Cubs. By 1875, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players was dangerously weak, additionally, Hulbert had a problem—five of his star players were threatened with expulsion from the NAPBBP because Hulbert had signed them to his club using what were considered questionable means. Hulbert had a vested interest in creating his own league. After recruiting St. Louis privately, four western clubs met in Louisville, Kentucky, Boston Red Stockings, the dominant team in the N. A. Hartford Dark Blues from the N. A. Mutual of New York from the N. A. St. Louis Brown Stockings from the N. A, the only strong club from 1875 excluded in 1876 was a second one in Philadelphia, often called the White Stockings or Phillies. The first game in National League history was played on April 22,1876, at Philadelphias Jefferson Street Grounds, 25th & Jefferson, the new leagues authority was tested after the first season. The National League operated with six clubs during 1877 and 1878, over the next several years, various teams joined and left the struggling league. By 1880, six of the eight members had folded. The two remaining original NL franchises, Boston and Chicago, remain in operation today as the Atlanta Braves, in 1883 the New York Gothams and Philadelphia Phillies began National League play. Both teams remain in the NL today, the Phillies in their original city, the NL encountered its first strong rival organization when the American Association began play in 1882. The A. A. played in cities where the NL did not have teams, offered Sunday games and alcoholic beverages in locales where permitted, the National League and the American Association participated in a version of the World Series seven times during their ten-year coexistence. These contests were less organized than the modern Series, lasting as few as three games and as many as fifteen, with two Series ending in disputed ties, the NL won four times and the A. A. only once, in 1886. Starting with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1887, the National League began to raid the American Association for franchises to replace NL teams that folded and this undercut the stability of the A. A. Other new leagues that rose to compete with the National League were the Union Association, the Union Association was established in 1884 and folded after playing only one season, its league champion St. Louis Maroons joining the NL. The NL suffered many defections of star players to the Players League, the Brooklyn, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and New York franchises of the NL absorbed their Players League counterparts. The labor strife of 1890 hastened the downfall of the American Association, after the 1891 season, the A. A. disbanded and merged with the NL, which became known legally for the next decade as the National League and American Association

10.
1869 in baseball
–
The following are the baseball events of the year 1869 throughout the world. National Association of Base Ball Players, Atlantic of Brooklyn March 19 - The first openly all-professional baseball club is formed as the Cincinnati Red Stockings, may 4 - The Cincinnati Red Stockings debut as the sports first openly all-professional team, defeating the Great Westerns 45-9. June 8 - An amateur club in Buffalo, New York called the Niagaras defeated another club called the Columbias 209-10 in the baseball game ever. June 15–17 - As part of their Eastern tour the Red Stockings defeat the Mutual of New York, Atlantic of Brooklyn, and Eckford of Brooklyn clubs 4-2, 32-10, and 34-5 respectively. July 3 - The Eckford of Brooklyn club defeats the defending champion Mutual of New York club for the time this season by a score of 31-5. This puts the championship flag in the possession of the Eckfords under the current rules, august 16 - The Red Stockings win over the visiting Eckford club 45-18 at their own Union Grounds. Late September/Early October - Travelling west over the newly completed First Transcontinental Railroad, October 12 - The Chicago Base-Ball Association is founded. The association exists today as the Chicago Cubs, november 5 - The Red Stockings complete an undefeated season with their 60th victory in as many contests, defeating the visiting Mutual Green Stockings of New York 17-8 before 7,000 spectators. November 8 - For the second time since the Eckfords won the flag and this gives the Atlantics the championship for the year by a 15-12 score. At its December 1868 meeting the NABBP permitted professional clubs for the first time, there had been no professional clubs outside the Association and no brand new professional clubs were established for 1869. Rather, the entire effect of the change was that twelve existing members declared professional status. All of them had fielded at least regionally strong teams in 1868, the Cincinnati Red Stockings were first to sign an all-salary team, ten men for eight months. From the west, the strongest team in Cleveland also joined the pro field, from the eastern corridor there were ten including all of the one-time champions and claimants. Otherwise the record of matches is remarkable for its balance, relative to the records of the stronger teams during the amateur era. The Irvingtons did not travel, or win, after July they played two matches with the Mutuals. Forest City of Cleveland did not travel far, only to Cincinnati and those two did not face each other or any of the three teams standing just above them. That imbalance, typical of the time, contributed to the records of all five. Weaker teams were weaker gate attractions with less incentive and almost always less ability to travel, the Irvingtons disbanded and the Keystones returned to amateur ranks but all the others remained in the professional field for 1870

11.
1872 in baseball
–
The following are the baseball events of the year 1872 throughout the world. National Association, Boston Red Stockings March 4 – At its annual convention being held in Cleveland, april 22 – Candy Cummings makes his debut with the New York Mutuals. April 26 – Orator Jim ORourke makes his debut with the Middletown Mansfields, may 24 – The Washington Olympics play their last game before dropping out of the NA. Poor talent and financial difficulties combine to do in the Olympics, june 26 – The Washington Nationals, with an 0–11 record, disband after losing 9–1 to the Baltimore Canaries. July 6 – Sporting a 22–1 record, Harry Wright takes the Boston Red Stockings on vacation to an island in Boston Harbor, july 9 – The Brooklyn Eckfords commit 13 errors in their 15–3 loss to the Troy Haymakers. It is the fewest errors committed by the 0–11 Eckfords in a thus far this season. July 23 – Despite a winning record, the Troy Haymakers disband due to financial problems, half of the Haymakers roster will move to the Brooklyn Eckfords, which saves them from dropping out of the NA. July 26 – In an emergency meeting, the NA revises their scheduling requirements from 5 to 9 games versus each opponent competing for the championship. This is in response to the number of teams that have disbanded, august 13 – The Middletown Mansfields announce that they have disbanded the club and drop out of the NA. August 19 – The Cleveland Forest Citys disband their club after a loss to the Boston Red Stockings and this drops the number of teams still playing in the NA to 6. September 1 – Al Thake, left-fielder batting.295 for the Brooklyn Atlantics, Thake is the first active major league ballplayer to die. October 22 – The Boston Red Stockings clinch the pennant with a 4–3 win over the Brooklyn Eckfords, blackguards and Red Stockings, A History of Baseballs National Association 1871–1875. Wallingford, Connecticut, Colebrook Press ISBN 0-9673718-0-5 Nemec, David, the Great Encyclopedia of 19th-Century Major League Baseball. Fine Books ISBN 1-55611-500-8 Specific 1872 season at baseball-reference. com Charltons Baseball Chronology at BaseballLibrary. com Retrosheet. org